Photo from malias, CC
Chromium 6 is everywhere, but is it dangerous!?! – A study of tap water from earlier this week shows that the chemical which has been the bane of Hinkley, CA residents, is also in at least 31 major cities. A study by the Environmental Working Group surveyed 35 cities, and found 31 of them to have tap water contaminated with Chromium 6. Because it’s a small city, Hinkley was not part of this study. Also, there are questions as to whether Chromium 6 is as dangerous when consumed in drinking water, than it is when breathed in. Currently, it’s only recognized as a carcinogen when breathed in.
Norman, Oklahama actually beat Hinkley’s current peak (3.09 parts per billion) with a whopping 12.9 parts per billion! At second place, with a huge disparity, is Honolulu, Hawaii, with 2 parts per billion. Hinkley still has a high average (1.19 ppb), but there are two major cities in California with dangerously high levels – the city of San Jose (with 1.34 parts per billion) and the city of Riverside, with 1.69 ppb. Riverside has the third highest amount of Chromium 6 in the water supply.
For reference, the safe amount, set by the California Environmental Protection Agency, is only .06 ppb.
Even Los Angeles and Sacramento were not on the safe list, with .16 in the state capitol and .20 for California’s largest population center.
Some scientists are saying that the whole report is “alarmist”, which is curious as there is good science that says the chemical is a carcinogen. I really can’t understand their reasoning. Northern Ohio’s Pioson Control Center’s managing director Alfred Aleguas, said there’s been no real standard set as to how much chromium 6 in the drinking water is safe.
But as I stated earlier, California’s EPA set that standard at .06 ppb.
At its highest peak, in the mid-1990s, Hinkley’s Chromium 6 level was at 580 ppb. The amount of cancer and disease in Hinkley at that time was also supposedly at its peak around that time, so shouldn’t there be some sort of link between the chemical and disease? I don’t think it would be alarmist to say that. But if there is a magic number, it probably does lie somewhere above the EPA’s conservative standard. None the less, it is a standard.
An Illusion of Cancer Risk???
Then again, maybe it isn’t a cancer risk. That’s the remarkable thing. No one knows! As I’ve delved deeper trying to figure out if there’s any connection with Chromium 6 in the drinking water and cancer, apparently it may be nothing more than an illusion. A study by the California Cancer Registry found that the rate of cancer in Hinkley, from 1988 to 2008, “was unremarkable”. That is to say, that the rate of cancer in that region during that time period, was actually LESS THAN EXPECTED then can be expected in that region.
What the hell!?! Right now, I’m really confused.
Sources
Environmental Working Group’s Report. Carcinogenic Erin Brockovich Chemical Found in Tap Water Across the U.S. 2010
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